Let's Talk with Nancy J. Cohen
Happy National Banana Bread Day
February 23, 2023
February is National Banana Bread Day. This loaf brings to mind mouth-watering aromas coming from the oven and biting into a moist, sweet piece of cake-like bread. It’s a great way to use ripe bananas, so keeping most of the ingredients on hand is a good idea. Then you can whip up this recipe as a last-minute treat.
Here is mine, shared from A Bad Hair Day Cookbook where you can find all my favorite quick and easy comfort foods.
BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP LOAF
Ingredients
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1-1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
4 Tbsp. sour cream
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter with sugar in a large bowl. Add vanilla, eggs, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sour cream. Mix to blend. Add mashed bananas. Fold in chocolate chips. Put into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Slice and serve.
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Another way I might use overly ripe bananas is to make my own version of Bananas Foster. For this dish, soften a couple of peeled, sliced bananas in the microwave in a bowl along with brown sugar and butter. Or sauté them in a frypan. If you like, add some vanilla extract, cinnamon and rum. When heated through, pour over vanilla ice cream and serve.
What does any of this have to do with books and writing?
Food is an essential ingredient for fiction, flavoring a story with cultural references and peppering character interactions as part of the background setting. Describing the appearance, smell and taste of a dish adds sensory details to a scene and depth to a story from the protagonist’s viewpoint.
Now it’s your turn to share. What’s your favorite way to use ripe bananas? Leave a comment for a chance to win an ebook copy of A Bad Hair Day Cookbook.
If you’d like to learn more about author Nancy J Cohen, visit her WEBSITE.
Posted in Let's Talk, with Nancy J. Cohen • Tags: A Bad Hair Day Cookbook, It's National Banana Bread Day, Let's Talk, Nancy J Cohen | 21 Comments
I love banana bread but never have had it with chocolate chips. Sounds great! I’m not much of a baker so my usual use for bananas is in smoothies. Add Greek yogurt, honey, ice chips, maybe a splash of dark cherry juice and yum! What’s nice is that you can slice and freeze the bananas so you don’t have to use them immediately.
Smoothies are always good and a healthy snack alternative!
The recipe sounds divine!
It’s fairly easy to make.
MILKSHAKES!
Yes, a nutritious alternative!
I always put chocolate chips in my banana bread. After reading your recipe, I may have to bake a few loaves!
I keep chocolate chips in stock … just in case I have need of them last-minute.
I also make banana bread with walnuts or pecans or you can make banana pudding. Thank you for the recipe.
Banana pudding sounds good!
I love making Muffins I have used them for of course banana flavored, but also snickerdoodle, sugar cookie muffins. I have used them for ice cream base as well a a cookie itself. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
I do have a banana bran muffin recipe that’s low fat. Forgot about it until you reminded me!
I love the strong connection of food with cozy mysteries. A great many of us love our homes and love eating, so reading about people making food in a mystery is always fun. The banana recipes sound awesome!
I’ve found food to be an essential part of fiction – where people eat, what they eat, how they prepare foods, what they talk about while they eat. Much of our socialization takes place around food so it’s only natural to appear in mysteries.
My favorite way is banana bread as well but I don’t usually put chocolate chips in mine. I have been known to buy bananas and let them ripen so I can make banana bread. My family loves it.
We enjoy it too but these days I watch my sweets so will only make it if I need to use up ripe bananas.
We fall into the chocolate chip users category. However, we’ve also used raisins, dried cranberries, and blueberries. Mostly, it’s the chocolate chips because that is our fav!
Good ideas, Terry. I should try dried cranberries. That would be a healthier alternative to chocolate.
My husband used to eat bananas all the time and now not at all. When he did I would make either bread or muffins with the ones that were turning mushy. I would have liked to have tried it with chocolate chips. I usually put walnuts in mine.
My husband eats bananas like a monkey. They usually get devoured before they get too ripe.
Shawn is the winner of my ebook cookbook. I will be contacting you separately. Thanks to everyone who left a comment!